Creatures of the Wind’s Japanese Photo Diary

For fall, Creatures of the Wind’s Chris Peters and Shane Gabier, who will show their spring collection on September 5 at a gallery in Chelsea, collaborated with 70-year-old Japanese label Sanyo—an outerwear maker, not the electronics giant—on a handful of expertly crafted, appropriately quirky coats. It was a project that allowed them to bring business to an area that was devastated by the 2011 tsunami as well as visit a city—Tokyo—that had always held their fascination. “We’re both nerds about Japan in a pretty big way,” Peters says. The two took snapshots of some of their favorite moments during their trip and sent them exclusively to Vogue.

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On the beach near Yamado-cho, in Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan. This is the morning after our visit to the first of two Sanyo factories that produce our collection.

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Our first morning in Tokyo: 6 a.m. in Yoyogi Park. We’re lucky we caught the last couple of days of cherry blossoms on our trip. Jet-lagged and excited, we went for a walk through the park, which, to our surprise, was filled with thousands of crows.

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Touring the Sanyo Shokai factory in Aomori. The facilities and machines are so specialized, and the level of technology is unbelievable! We’re with our New York City partners, Ryuhei Oomaru and Sayuri Nagasawa, from Oomaru Seisakusho 2, who we worked with on the Sanyo collaboration and who also oversee all of our patternmaking and Japanese production; for the first ten days of the trip, we all traveled together.

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Sayuri (not pictured) was laughing while we were being coaxed (in Japanese!) into speaking to the entire factory over the loudspeaker. Note our tentative smiles . . . .

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Posing for a portrait with all of the workers at the Aomori factory. Every single employee is incredibly skilled; every garment is so perfect and precise! And everyone takes off their shoes when they come into work and puts on slippers. They had gray leather guest slippers for us.

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This was an emotional moment. We’re on the rooftop of the city hall in Yamado-cho, overlooking the destruction caused by the 2011 tsunami. Yamado-cho was one of the places that was hit hardest—40 percent of the factory workers lost their homes that day. There are signs of rebuilding and new growth sprouting up, and it’s incredibly touching to talk to the people there and see their strength, fortitude, and positive approach to moving forward. We’re really happy and honored to be working with them.

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Chris’s favorite building in Asakusa, a really special neighborhood in Tokyo. Giant teacup balconies!

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The garden at the onsen ryokan where we stayed for a night on our way to the factories in northern Japan. Totally silent and incredibly peaceful, the most quiet day of our lives.

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This was an amazing general store in Shichinohe-machi, Aomori Prefecture, with an American frontier–style decor.